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Steve Cardenas’ recent Newvelle Records LP is called Charlie & Paul—as in Haden and Motian, two of the guitarist’s biggest influences and two musicians who gave his career a boost by hiring him. The lyricism of their compositions is echoed in his two leader albums for Fresh Sounds and two subsequent ones for Sunnyside. Cardenas…Read More

This weekend (Aug. 3-5), 30,000 or so music enthusiasts will converge on a spit of land overlooking Narragansett Bay in Newport, R.I., for the annual Newport Jazz Festival. Since 1954, the festival has been a New England summer tradition (except for the nine years from 1972 to 1981, during which it emigrated from Newport to…Read More

On her new album, Some of That Sunshine, to be released by her own label Kasrecords on Aug. 3, singer Karrin Allyson unveils a skill that many of her listeners may believe is new for her: songwriting. But it turns out that she was already engaged in tunesmithery well before the release of her debut…Read More

When asked if he identifies himself as a composer or an improviser, Brandon Ross chooses neither. “I consider myself a creator,” he says, a comment that nods to wisdom collected from his friend and frequent collaborator Wadada Leo Smith. Ross is also the epitome of the postmodern guitar hero, a fretboard virtuoso who adheres to…Read More

Quick, what do Andy Warhol, Peter Max, and Romare Bearden all have in common? Our headline gives away the answer, of course, because yes, all of them did the artwork for jazz album covers. And in that they were far from alone: The tradition of interesting and creative jazz album covers goes all the way…Read More

These were the most meaningful and significant jazz-guitar tracks for me growing up. I made some discoveries at the public library, where you could take out 10 LPs at a time; others through my early guitar teachers; and still more just from word of mouth and friends who played. It was fun to revisit some…Read More

Arianna Neikrug, the 25-year-old singer who won the Sarah Vaughan International Vocal Competition in 2015, will release her debut album, Changes, Aug. 24 on Concord Jazz, and JazzTimes is pleased to be premiering the album’s title track here. “I wrote the melody and lyrics to ‘Changes’ a couple months after graduating from college,” Neikrug says.…Read More

There’s something special about a quartet. Not that anything’s wrong with other group configurations, but the balance that can be achieved between four musicians—as between four seasons and four elements—often yields unique rewards that feel both surprising and deeply right. That’s why we’re inaugurating our new weekly list series, The JazzTimes 10, with a look at…Read More

In creating my new album, The Future Is Female, I’ve thought a lot about women and the role they play in the lineage and trajectory, the past and future, of society and of jazz. It’s made me realize how little I still know about the women in the music. If I’m a part of this…Read More